The Cut
by Stellata
Summary: Harry and Hermione are fighting for their lives, and Harry takes a hit for Hermione. Harry is dead - or is he? Hermione is having some strange dreams that may lead her to an incredible conclusion... Harry/Hermione, AU.


Disclaimer: Sadly not mine.

Warning: Things in this story are not as they appear to be, so be forewarned...

* * *

She was running for her life, and she had no idea where she was going. The Department of Mysteries was the most confusing place she'd ever been in, and that was saying something, as she had gone to Hogwarts.

"Which way?" Harry was saying. He was holding her hand very tightly, and his wand in his other hand.

Hermione had a dreadful sense of deja vu. Except two years ago, they knew they had sent for back up. They had none coming this time, to their knowledge. Last time they had lost Sirius - who else would they lose this time?

Ginny and Luna and Ron had been separated from them at least half an hour ago, that was enough time for anything to happen. They could already be dead. So could Neville and Padma, who had been trapped on the other side after the bridge collapsed.

"Left," Hermione decided after a second. They continued running, desperate to find a way out.

There were at least twenty Death Eaters around them. Some were searching for them, and others could be lurking around any corner. Harry was tense and terrified all at once.

He'd realized over the years that Fate was a bitch, and it truly struck home tonight. He was forced to fight for his life in the same place he had seen his godfather die, and now he had even more to lose - his friends, _Hermione..._

He couldn't lose them, he thought, quite determined, as they leapt through a mist. Hermione whispered a quick charm as they began to flip upside down, and they quickly regained their balance and kept running.

"What's this?" Hermione breathed as they came to another room with many doors. In the middle of the room was a large cabinet full of javelins, with some strange green jelly on the tips.

"Keep going," Harry said roughly, and they chose a random door, hoping it would take them out at last.

The first one they tried had a fire in it, within the fire was an egg, too dark for a dragon's egg, too light for a chimaera's... Harry didn't want to know what it was.

They went back to the room of javelins and tried another door.

This time they found what appeared to be a swamp.

"Illusion or portal?" Harry mused.

"Illusion," Hermione said, after a quick diagnostic spell.

They ran back into the javelin room.

"Expelliarmus!" Their wands both went flying out of their hands. Bellatrix Lestrange and Lucius Malfoy were on the other side of the room, smirking.

"At last. Let's not waste any more time." Lucius gestured his wand, and a javelin went flying towards Hermione.

Harry reacted instinctively and leapt in front of it.

"Harry!" Hermione shrieked as the javelin flew straight through his stomach. It continued on to hit her in the belly, and she gasped with pain, staggering before yanking it out.

"Harry!" she wailed, collapsing by his side. "No!"

She could barely hear the screams of Lucius and Bellatrix as Neville and Padma entered, downing both Death Eaters instantly. Neville stood over his parents' torturer with a look of utter calm on his face. Bellatrix had died after a single reducto to the heart, and Lucius had died after a bludgeoning curse struck his head.

"Hermione!" Padma cried.

"Harry!" Neville called. They raced to their friends to look them over.

Hermione held Harry in her arms. Her vision blurred as she sobbed.

"No, Harry, no..."

"I'm sorry, Hermione - he's dead."

* * *

Hermione sat hunched over at the funeral. Her eyes were red from constant crying, her body sore from not sleeping, and her foot twitching uncontrollably for no reason at all.

Neville and Padma had gotten them out of the Ministry and back to Hogwarts, where Hermione's wound had been treated quickly by Madam Pomfrey. There had been nothing she could do for Harry.

Not even Dumbledore could bring back the dead.

"As we gather here today," the Headmaster was saying quietly, but Hermione could barely hear him.

"My fault," she hiccuped. "It's all my fault."

"No it isn't," Padma whispered to her friend.

"He chose to save you," Ginny added solemnly.

Both girl's eyes were red, but they knew they had to support their friend, who was suffering even more than they were.

"He looks so natural," Neville said quietly to Ron.

"They could heal the cut, but they couldn't bring him back to life," Ron sighed.

"Harry, what am I going to do without you?" Hermione whispered. She watched as Harry's coffin was closed and lowered into the ground.

Soon the ceremony was over, and Hermione and her friends were some of the last ones left. Hermione's eyes closed as she rocked back and forth, crying silently.

"Please, give this to Miss Granger," she could hear Dumbledore saying softly to Ginny. "I believe Harry would have wished it to be hers.

Hermione opened her eyes and looked at what Ginny was holding out to her.

It was Harry's wand.

Her heart broke all over again.

* * *

Hermione sat alone in her dorm. Lavender and Parvati were off somewhere, doubtlessly performing the most life affirming ritual they could do in the face of such tragedy.

It was the third night since Harry's death, and she had barely slept a wink.

Hermione looked at the vial in her hands, labeled _Dreamless Sleep. _

"Good night, Harry. This will help me sleep," she whispered, as she filled a teaspoon with Dreamless Sleep and downed it in a heartbeat. When nothing happened instantly, she drank another teaspoon.

"I feel funny," Hermione mused to herself. She giggled and fell back onto her bed, instantly unconscious.

She was walking through the grounds, towards Harry's headstone. Something was wrong, and she began to run.

Before the headstone, the grave was dug up!

She gasped and peered down. Harry was standing up, looking at her and waving.

"Hey Hermione," he called cheerfully.

"Harry," Hermione felt suddenly happy again. "I - I thought you were dead!"

"If I were dead, could I do this?" Harry was climbing up the side of the hole, and soon he was standing beside Hermione, a little dirty but otherwise all right.

"But - the javelin," Hermione pointed.

Harry looked down and saw the hole in his stomach.

"Oh, that," he brushed off. "It went right through, I'm fine." He looked carefully at it, then stuck a hand through the hole.

Hermione swallowed.

"All right, that definitely support my you-are-dead theory."

"Then I'll have to prove I'm alive," Harry smiled at her. He reached out and gently brushed a strand of hair away from her face.

"I'll tell you something only I could know. I have a surprise for you, Dobby was holding it for me. I got it in Diagon Alley last summer."

He pulled a gift-wrapped box from behind his back.

"It - it's too beautiful to open," Hermione whispered. "Can I open it?"

"Sure," Harry grinned. "There's just one thing I want you to do."

"What?"

"I want you to wake up."

"Wake up? But I'm not - "

Hermione sat up in bed breathing hard. Crookshanks rolled off her bed.

"Hermione! You all right?" Lavender was seated at her desk, wearing a small black nightgown. She grabbed a robe and drew it around herself as she walked over to Hermione.

"No. I have to see Dobby," Hermione said. She leapt out of bed and ran to the stairs. Parvati and Lavender exchanged frightened glances and followed Hermione.

She called the house elf to her in the Common Room.

"Dobby is here," he said quietly as he popped into the room.

"Dobby, this is important," Hermione told him frantically. "Did Harry give you something - something to keep for him? A box?"

"Hermione," Parvati sighed. "Let's go back to bed..."

"Yes, he did," Dobby said, wide-eyed. "Does you want it now?"

"Yes please," Hermione said, barely able to control her excitement.

Dobby drew a circle in the air with his hand and a box appeared - the same box from Hermione's dream.

"That proves it," Hermione said as she tore open the wrapping paper. Inside the box was a bracelet, with several charms on it. A tiny broomstick, an open book, a wand, a snowflake, a dragon, and a hippogriff.

"It's beautiful," Lavender said softly.

"Harry told me Dobby was holding this for him! It was a gift for me!" Hermione beamed as she slipped it on. "Harry must be alive somewhere and he's reaching me in my dreams!"

Lavender and Parvati exchanged awful glances.

"Hermione, I'm sorry, but that's... You have to... He's dead, Hermione."

"But what if he's not?"

Ten minutes later, they were outside by Harry's gravestone, wearing coats to defend against the cold night air.

Hermione cast a diagnostic spell on the grave. She gasped and tried not to cry.

"He's dead, isn't he?" Lavender said softly.

Hermione tried it again, with the same results.

"But - but my dream," she said, taking a deep, shaky breath. "How could I have known Dobby was holding the gift for him?"

"Harry must have told you about it before he died," Parvati said quietly. "But your mind might have blocked it out..."

"What, so I'm just going crazy?" Hermione began to sob.

"Nobody's saying that," Lavender said, stroking her friend's back.

"Shh," Parvati said as the two girls took a crying Hermione in her arms. "Shh, shh, shh."

* * *

A week later Hermione sat in a window seat of the library. She was drawn up in a ball, with her arms around herself.

Then she saw Harry, standing just a few feet away. She let out a fierce sob and covered her ears.

"Hey, Hermione," Harry smiled at her. "I'm just gonna keep talking, even if you can't hear me. Did you know the Chudley Cannons actually beat the Harpies?"

"Shut up!" Hermione screamed, shaking. "All right, all right, I can hear you. But this is just a dream."

Harry smiled and reached out to take her hand. His hand felt warm and _oh so _real in hers.

Then he was pulling her off the window seat into his arms and smiling down at her - and they weren't in the library anymore. Suddenly they were on a balcony, and there was light classical music playing.

"Could a dream take you dancing on a Parisian balcony?" Harry whispered.

His mouth was so close to hers that Hermione froze for a minute.

"Yes, it could," she said softly. "But it's still very sweet of you, Harry."

"What if we shared another ride on a hippogriff, over the Andes?"

Hermione gasped and grabbed the reins tightly as she found herself flying through the air on Buckbeak again. Harry's arms around her were tight and comforting.

"Oh, please, you _have_ to be alive," Hermione whispered to Harry.

"Here, take my cloak," Harry offered. "You look a little cold."

"Thank you," she said shyly as he wrapped it around her. "The snowcapped mountains are so beautiful, Harry. Oh, I wish I could convince the others you're alive..."

"You can," Harry whispered in her ear. "All you have to do is wake up."

Hermione almost froze and screamed.

"No, no! Don't say that! This is real!"

Hermione woke up screaming. Crookshanks yowled and leapt off the bed.

"Not another dream," she cried. Then she saw the dark green cloak wrapped around her shoulders.

"Harry's cloak! The one he was buried in! My dream was real, he's alive!" Hermione almost wept with joy, and ran over to Lavender's bed.

Her two dorm mates woke up as she shook them.

"Look! Harry's alive! I have proof!"

Lavender blinked sleepily and sat up.

"Hermione, please. You were dreaming again -"

"He gave me his cloak, look!" Hermione said excitedly, thrusting it at Lavender.

The two other girls blinked.

"Hermione," Parvati said quietly. "That's your cloak."

"What?" Hermione gasped. She looked. It was indeed her dark blue cloak hanging over her arm.

"That's not Harry's cloak," Lavender sighed.

"But Harry - " Hermione babbled. "His cloak - when I woke up it was on me!"

"Hermione, you're under a lot of stress. You've just lost your best friend," Parvati said, reaching out to touch Hermione's arm.

"I am not under stress!" Hermione shrieked. Across the room, her lamp exploded.

Lavender and Parvati hurried out of bed.

"Everything's going to be all right," Lavender spoke in Dumbledore's voice.

"What?" Hermione gasped.

"I said everything's going to be all right," Lavender said normally.

"Oh..." Hermione shivered. "Maybe I am freaking out a little. I need to calm down, take some mroe Dreamless Sleep..."

"You've been taking that?" Parvati frowned. "Be careful, Hermione!"

"One spoonful helps you sleep, two spoonfuls gives you a deep, undisturbed sleep - but three spoonfuls and you'll fall into a sleep so deep you'll never wake up, with the most vivid dreams imaginable," Lavender sounded worried. "Never!"

"Never!" Parvati said in Remus Lupin's voice.

"Never!" Lavender repeated, this time in Neville's voice.

Hermione shivered and looked away.

* * *

When Lavender and Parvati had fallen back asleep, Hermione took out the vial of Dreamless Sleep.

"One spoonful to help me sleep," Hermione whispered, and drank it. "Two spoonfuls to have a deep, undisturbed sleep." She drank another one.

A minute passed and nothing had happened.

"Still awake," Hermione sighed. "I guess one more spoonful couldn't hurt." She tried to pour another spoonful, but accidentally knocked it over - onto Harry.

"Ah! Now I'm all wet and sticky," Harry laughed.

"Harry," Hermione breathed.

* * *

"This is fantastic," Dumbledore said slowly. "According to all our charms, the green potion on the javelin had rare magical properties. When it went through Harry, it left an imprint of Harry's DNA and brainwaves on the javelin - and on your wound, Hermione. When you spilled Dreamless Sleep on your stitches, the ingredients combined with trace amounts of Harry's blood, and caused Harry's entire being to spontaneously regenerate!

"Thank Merlin," Professor McGonagall sighed.

"I'm so glad you're alive," Hermione grabbed Harry and hugged him tightly to her.

"Me too," he said roughly as he squeezed her back.

"Now everything is all right," Hermione sighed, looking deeply into Harry's eyes.

She thought he might be about to kiss her.

"Not everything," he whispered, almost kissing her.

"What do you mean?" Hermione whispered.

"You have to wake up."

Hermione jolted back.

"Wake up? Oh, no! Harry, no! It can't be!"

Hermione woke up on a couch in the Common Room.

"No," she said miserably. "Not again."

* * *

"I think I'm cracking up," she told Ginny honestly. "When I'm dreaming, I'm so happy, because Harry is still alive. But when I'm awake, my mind keeps on playing tricks on me."

"Oh, take it easy, 'Mione," Ron said.

"In every life you have some trouble," Ginny told her sadly.

"But when you worry, you make it double!" Neville grinned.

"Don't worry!" Luna sang.

"Be happy!" Lavender and Parvati chimed in.

A javelin came flying through the air and struck Ginny through the stomach.

"Don't worry!" Neville told her.

"Be happy!" Ron cried.

Fireworks went off around them all.

Hermione blinked. Ginny was looking at her strangely. She was perfectly healthy, no javelin stuck in her.

"Earth to Hermione!"

"Were you just singing?" Hermione asked weakly.

"No, I was telling you not to worry," Ginny told her.

"Yeah, I'm not even allowed to sing," Ron said glumly. "Professor McGonagall said she'd take a hundred points away from Gryffindor."

Hermione nodded quickly.

"I - I'm going to the library, okay?"

Instead of stopping at the library, she ran all the way outside, and down to Harry's gravestone.

"This is just an ordinary grave," Hermione whispered as she cast the spells to dig up the hole again. "With an ordinary coffin, containing my ordinary dead friend, who died for me."

She levitated the coffin out and flung it open before she had any second thoughts.

A blaze of brilliant green light escaped from it, hitting Hermione.

* * *

Hermione sat up in bed.

"What - what happened? Why am I back in the dorms?"

Lavender was in front of her, shaking her head.

"He shouldn't have died, Hermione. You should have."

"You weren't worthy of being his friend," Luna added scornfully, and Hermione cringed backwards.

"You as good as killed him," Ginny whispered, and Hermione started screaming.

"Silencio! Silencio! Silencio!"

But even with their voices gone, they still gazed at her accusingly.

"You killed Harry!" Ron bellowed, and Hermione freaked out.

"Stupefy!"

Ron fell to the floor, unconscious, and Hermione fell onto her bed, sobbing into her arms.

"This isn't real, this is a dream, this is a dream..." When she looked up they were all gone.

"All right," Hermione whispered, wiping away her tears. "I'm insane. But I'm still sane enough to know it."

She grabbed the photo of her and Harry from 6th year on her bedside table. They were standing together outside the Three Broomsticks, grinning madly, with their arms around each other. Every few moments, Hermione would stuff some snow down Harry's shirt, Harry would yelp, Hermione would giggle, then they would hug again. Sometimes Hermione kissed him on the cheek. There had been nights when she had just stared at the photograph until she fell asleep.

"The only time I feel all right anymore is in my dreams, with you," Hermione whispered, staring longingly at Harry. She picked up the vial of Dreamless Sleep.

"Three spoonfuls. Then I can sleep forever, dreaming of you. One. Two. Here goes. Goodbye, world." She moved the third spoonful to her mouth.

"No, Hermione!"

She froze in place. It was Harry, in the picture!

"Listen to me," he pleaded, "You don't want to lie in bed for the rest of your life. I've done it - during the summer! You get tired of it!"

"Then what am I supposed to do?" Hermione cried.

"Fight it!" Harry told her.

"I can't," Hermione wept, sinking onto the bed with his picture in one hand and the spoon of Dreamless Sleep in the other.

"You can!" Harry insisted. "The Hermione I know wouldn't give up this easily!"

Hermione looked at him and almost smiled.

"Okay, I'll try," she told him.

"I - I don't know if you can hear me, Hermione, but there's something I need to tell you. I love you - I'm in love with you."

"I'm so scared, Harry. I don't know what do do!"

"Just wake up, Hermione," Harry's photo pleaded with her. "Please. Just wake up."

"I don't understand what you mean!" Hermione sobbed, clutching at the photo.

Her vision faded as she succumbed to sleep.

* * *

Her eyes opened slowly.

"Just wake up," Harry was crying, and clutching her hand. "Please. Just wake up, Hermione!"

She looked at him, alive and whole again.

"Harry! You're alive!"

"Hermione! You're awake!" Harry cried, darting forward to kneel next to her on the bed.

"Of course I'm awake," Hermione frowned. "You wouldn't _stop_ waking me. Where am I?"

"The hospital wing," Harry told her, just as Hermione realized that herself. Harry's cloak was draped over her lap, and she was wearing the silver charm bracelet.

"Neville and Padma brought us here after the javelin cut you."

"But it went right through you!" Hermione said, quite confused. "It barely hurt me!"

Harry lifted up his shirt, and Hermione could see a bandage on it.

"The green tip of the javelin was poisoned, Hermione. Yes, it went right through me - and you got all of the poison. It was easy for Madam Pomfrey to fix me."

"Hermione!" Ginny ran to the bed. "She's awake!"

Padma, Parvati, Lavender, Ron, Neville, and Luna all ran over.

"Hey, Hermione," Ron grinned. "You were in the longest coma I've ever seen!"

"Madam Pomfrey didn't think you'd ever wake up," Lavender said quietly. "They brought in all these specialists from St. Mungos, but none of them could do anything."

"Really?" Hermione blinked. "How long was I out?"

"Two weeks. Harry never left your side for a minute," Parvati told her with a smile.

"And he never stopped talking," Neville grinned. "Like someone had cast a babbling hex on him."

"I thought," Harry said softly, not letting go of her hand, "If you heard a familiar voice, it maybe might help keep your mind together. But who knows if it really got through."

"It got through, Harry." Hermione grabbed her best friend and hugged him as tightly as she could. "It got through," she whispered.

Harry held her close and breathed in relief.

"You could really use a shower," Hermione mumbled into his ear.

"You too," Harry smiled into her neck.

They pulled apart and Hermione leaned in to kiss Harry gently - on the mouth.

"By the way, I love you too," she sighed happily.

Harry just smiled and pulled her into another kiss.

* * *

A/N: This plot is taken and adapted from the Futurama episode The Sting. So in a way, this is a double fanfiction. Hope you liked it. R & R!


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